The Consequences of Plagiarism – An Awakening

Find out about the consequences of plagiarism...

You may be surprised but the consequences of plagiarism are extremely severe and that fast and easy press of the copy and paste icon could be something you will regret for the rest of your life.

Plagiarism is actually more of a problem than it's ever been, though it's easier to catch people than ever before. The wide spread use of the World Wide Web is of course the main reason for this. The Internet means that information is easier to access and so easier to plagiarise. However, students need to realise that they must resist the temptation to copy other's work – just because something is becoming more common, does not mean that it is something that people should ever think is okay to do. That and the fact it's a lot easier to recognise.

Of course, if you doubt the severity of the issues that can occur because of plagiarism you should continue to read below.

Destruction

If you plagiarise for a piece of work, particularly a longer piece of work, you will probably see it destroyed. Longer and more defining pieces of work such as dissertations and thesis' are scrutinised more closely than the traditional work. This means that most issues regarding plagiarism will be not only discovered, but also the consequences will be a lot more severe.

Imagine having a 10,000 word document destroyed because one sentence was not attributed or was plagiarised as your own work – it doesn't really bear thinking about to be honest. In the case of a work like this, originality is everything and it should be up to publication standard – not something worth risking.

Academic Career

More severe again is the chance that if caught you are endangering your whole academic career. In fact, many universities or courses will ask you to leave if you've been caught plagiarising as you've shown yourself to be dishonest and untrustworthy. This means that all the work you've done up until that point is of absolutely no use whatsoever and you've sacrificed all your work and all those years you spend doing it.

Expulsion

Plagiarism one a university or college course can have severe repercussions and in the UK almost 150 people each year find them out to their full extent. In fact, if you're caught plagiarising in the UK it's quite possible that you will be taken out of your course and banned.

A lot of people don't realise that this is as much the case for a college course as it is a university one in the highest ranked establishments in the country. The perception that somehow plagiarism only matters at the highest level is one regularly seen as a misconception first hand. In fact, it can mean that you will be taken from your course and banned for a number of years.

In addition, you will never be allowed to attend a similar course again – obviously something that's extremely severe and could impact on you for the remainder of your life.

Legal Issues

In the worst case scenario plagiarism can result in legal action being taken against you. Copyright laws are absolute and if caught you can be deemed having broken the law. This may mean a criminal case is taken against you and also that you can be taken to court for damages by the author. This can make for a number of legal and also monetary issues and may require you to pay a penalty.